


unexpected

by V_e_s_a_n_u_s



Series: Whumptober 2018 [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt, Major Character Injury, Violence, Whumptober, prompt, stabbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 09:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16156190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V_e_s_a_n_u_s/pseuds/V_e_s_a_n_u_s
Summary: Day number 1 of #whumptober! Prompt was stabbed!They didn't expect the ambush, nor the blade that came out of nowhere and sank deep. They didn't expect it to happen like this.





	unexpected

“All I’m saying, Sparky, is that if you add a little decoration, your hand would make a rather charming (and rather odd) night light,” Varric said, throwing a grin at the Inquisitor as she looked at her hand with a bemused expression. 

“I see your point,” Ellana began turning her palm over to examine it from more angles, “But wouldn’t it be odd having the beloved ‘Herald of Andraste’ standing at your child’s bedside?”

The dwarf laughed, readjusting Bianca on his back, and looking at the steep rocky walls of the valley around them, “Well, I did say it would be  _ odd…” _ he continued after there was a disgruntled noise from behind him, “Come now, Seeker-”

His voice cut off abruptly in surprise as Cole jumped in front of him, his blade clashing with another that narrowly missed Varric’s head. Ellana’s head whipped around, scanning the environment, to see more men running in from behind them. An ambush. Great. 

“Where the shit did they come from?” Varric yelled, leaping backwards as Cole continued his lethal dance with the snarling man slashing at him with full force. 

Cassandra charged at the men rounding the corner in front of them, sword held high. Ellana swore she could see the person she was charging at flinch and then hesitate before running at her. The Seeker’s sword glinted in the harsh sun as she brought it down with force, slamming it into a dual-wielding rogue’s shoulder. The man cried out with pain and staggered back, but Cassandra had no time to finish him off because another sword was clanging against her shield with an ear-splitting smash of metal on wood. 

Ellana brought down lightning all around her, sparks leaping from target to target, and she span to guide it, ensuring that the shocks hit their mark and avoided her teammates. Varric fell into step behind her, keeping her back covered and raining down bolts on their assailants. 

The dwarf quickly stepped aside as a light-footed duellist ran at him at full speed. Varric tripped him over at the last second, proceeding to thwack the rogue on the head with the butt of Bianca and turn around just in time to plant a bolt between another man’s eyes.

The ambush was failing, men falling left and right and the pass was already littered with bodies and blood. It almost seemed as if they were winning, but there were complications, as there always were. Just as the number of attackers seemed to be thinning, there was a distant shout from one of the swordsmen.

“Reinforcements!” Cassandra yelled to her teammates, taking strategic, defensive steps backwards to tighten their alignment. 

“Ready for round two?” Varric quipped as more soldiers charged around the corner, and he steadied Bianca with a practised hand, and took aim. 

Ellana span around to keep her eyes on where the bulk of the soldiers were, but as she turned, a rogue stepped out of the shadows behind her, unseen. The Inquisitor realised too late. The blade sunk deep into her side, tearing into her flesh like butter. Blood started gushing from the hole in her side in torrents. She let out a yelp of pain, sending a lightning bolt at the rogue behind her, watching as it conducted and ricocheted off her metal armour. Cole appeared beside her to finish the stunned rogue off before disappearing again almost as fast. 

“You okay there, Sparky?” Varric shouted from across the valley. 

Ellana brought a stunned hand to her side, pressing into the wound and she winced, watching her hand come away red and wet. She glanced up at Varric, still facing away and fighting his own battle with two attackers. “I’m good,” she said, voice surprisingly steady, pressing her hand back into her wound to stem the flow of blood and tried to think straight. 

Fight now. Bleed out after.

It seemed like the best plan at the moment. 

Cassandra was carving her way through the reinforcements with what looked like ease. She was sweating, her carefully trained eye always on the next target as she cut down her current one. Cole stepped in beside her, placing careful and precise stabs at weak points: neck, armpit, knee. He disappeared from view for a moment and then reappeared behind his target for a debilitating backstab that had the soldier crumpling at his feet. 

The attackers were thinning once more, and those remaining were starting to panic, looking around with wild frantic eyes. Suddenly, all at once, they all turned and started to run. 

“They’re retreating!” Cassandra shouted, “Don’t let them escape!” 

The two humans began to chase them down as they ran, and even Varric ran forwards to get in range of their fleeing targets. Ellana stood still, hand tightly cupped against her side, the blood seeping through the gaps in her fingers no matter how hard she pressed them. She didn’t have the energy to run after them. She summoned up one last lightning bolt, and watched tiredly as it leapt between foes in the distance as she leant heavily on her staff. 

Cole finished off the last foe with a brutal slash across the neck, cutting through the muscle with terrifying ease. They all watched as the soldier collapsed to her knees, hands grasping at her throat in vain before she fell face-first into the floor of the sandy floor. As the blood spread around her and sunk into the sand, the two humans and the dwarf turned around and started walking back to where the Inquisitor was. 

“By the Maker,” Cassandra sighed, wiping her brow with the back of her hand before she put her sword into its sheath, “An ambush? Were we expecting this?” She lifted the shield over her shoulder and fixed it onto her back as they came to a stop in front of Ellana. 

“If we were  _ expecting _ it, it wouldn’t have taken us by surprise, Seeker,” Varric replied with a raised eyebrow at the warrior. Cassandra offered no reply except a stern look so the rogue turned back to the Inquisitor, and then his brows furrowed, “Are you alright, Sparky? You look pale, well paler than  _ usual _ anyway-”

_ “Hurt!” _ Cole cried suddenly, and they all jumped in surprise, “She’s-”

It was then that Ellana’s grip on her staff slipped, her vision dark and blurry and spotted with flashing lights. She stumbled forward, falling, plummeting towards the ground and she only gasped at the dizzying sensation. Secure arms caught her just before she hit the ground, something solid, something  _ real _ that she could feel in the world she couldn’t quite make out. 

“Inquisitor!” Cassandra turned her over hastily in her arms, scanning her for injuries. Her eyes landed on where her hand was barely pressed, and removed it gently. She sucked in a shocked breath through her teeth, “We need bandages, quickly! Varric: put pressure here.”

“On it,” he said, kneeling down quickly with a worried expression, and pressing his large hands against the cut in her side, “Come on, Sparky, stay with me. You’re going to be fine.”

Cassandra shook the mage’s shoulders, “Inquisitor, can you hear me?” 

Ellana’s eyes were swivelling around, seeing nothing but darkness and colour. She grumbled something weakly that sounded like a yes and Cassandra clung onto that hope. 

“I need you to stay awake, Inquisitor, can you do that? Focus on our voices: stay awake.”

Cole was pulling supplies out of his pack and handing them to the warrior with fast-moving hands. An elfroot potion, some bandages, anything he could find that might be useful. Cassandra nodded her thanks to him and turned back to the elf in her lap. 

“Stay with us now, Sparky, the Seeker’s got some things that are going to help,” Varric said, nodding encouragingly, “Are you still with us?” 

“I-” Ellana’s head was reeling, her grip on the sounds around her slipping. She was dizzy, she felt light-headed and she was  _ tired. _ All she wanted was to just forget the searing pain in her side and rest. It had been such a long time since she’d rested. The camp felt so far away. She missed her blankets and her pillows and slowly she felt herself drifting. Her voice trailed off in a contented sound and her eyes fluttered shut. 

“Oh no, you don’t!” Cassandra shouted at her, dropping the bandages and shaking her  _ hard. _

Ellana’s eyelids opened slightly, eyes scanning the skies wildly, before they shut again. 

“No! Inquisitor! Stay with us!”

“Wake up! Wake up!” 

“Please wake up!”

But darkness had consumed her and she was too far gone to hear their pleas.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! Let me know what you thought XD


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